


Sunrise

by lillytalons



Series: Commander Cody Week [1]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-15
Updated: 2021-03-15
Packaged: 2021-03-23 05:41:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 700
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30050769
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lillytalons/pseuds/lillytalons
Summary: Cody considers his defining moment and decides what to paint on his armor.
Series: Commander Cody Week [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2210700
Kudos: 16





	Sunrise

**Author's Note:**

> This is for commandercodyweek, day 2. The prompt is origins and I decided to write about the origin of Cody's armor design, heavily influenced by fanon. Kudos and comments appreciated! ❤️

Cody looked at the gold paint in front of him, knowing that he would be the instigator among his men for designs on their armor. He had had yellow on his armor for over a year now as a commander both on Kamino and now in the war. The Jedi had this idea that the clones should use the color as a unit marker instead of rank identification. It would cut down on droids targeting officers, and General Kenobi had mentioned something about unity. 

They had picked gold, similar to the commander color he had before, but bolder, deeper. The 212th got their own color because they were specifically assigned to their Jedi, unlike other battalions. 

But what to paint on the armor?

The paint was used on gunships so it wasn’t coming off without some extreme chemicals not allowed in any room smaller than the main hanger. The first run had to be perfect. 

He had blank, shiny armor in front of him, his other armor tucked away in case he needed it for some reason, or his new armor got too damaged. 

Cody sighed, took the pauldrons, and instead of the normal stripe down the center he painted the whole thing gold. Then he painted each of the joints for his elbows and knees. Solid, recognizable by his men, and simple too. He was not interested in frills.

He didn’t know what to do with the chest plate yet, so he moved on to his bucket, painting the visor and the fin, but nothing else. 

He finally sat back, considering what was unique to him, to his life. Despite his more unique command classes on Kamino, it wasn’t something that was unique to him, no brother could claim to have a unique experience there, other than the picking of names. 

Jango had trained Cody, called him Kote then, but the nuance was quickly lost out in the galaxy. Besides, who would believe a clone could be called Glory? They were interchangeable to most of the galaxy. 

The Jedi seemed different so far, but time would tell. 

Cody slowly sorted through memories, before remembering the first sunrise he had seen. The first true sunrise. It had been the first planet he had been to after Kamino. They had landed in the night, attacking quickly and taking down the droid base. They had been doing the last of the clean up when gold suddenly seemed to bathe the world around them. 

He had never seen anything like it. 

They all knew what sunset and sunrise was theoretically, but the Vode didn’t have the chance to see it. They hardly went outside of their training facilities in the first place, there were no windows, and the cadets who snuck out saw mostly clouds and storms, whether it was raining or not. Cody had seen the sun of course, but it was rare.

On this world he had been on for less than 12 hours, a world he hardly knew the name of, he saw the sunrise. It came over low mountains, rising into an almost clear sky. 

He had never known that the sky could be so many colors. 

It was then that he knew he wanted to survive the war. He wanted to see the entire galaxy and see the sights he had been denied in his unusual upbringing. And he wanted his brothers to have that too. 

On every world he tried to see the sunrise and sunset when they were around to see it. It was a small piece, like his name, that was only his. Only he knew what it meant, even if he couldn’t articulate it to anyone else, or even completely to himself. 

He was no artist, but he painted three lines going up on his chest plate, a reminder of that sunrise. Maybe only recognizable to him, but that’s all he needed. Cody added a line on each thigh plate because they had been missing something. 

He sat back to look at his armor, and he felt a swelling in his chest, like when he had accepted his name and made it his own. This was his, and people would know who he was.


End file.
